Ron Paul Campaign Accused of Trying to Buy Iowa Endorsements

The Ron Paul presidential campaign may have been involved with negotiations to offer financial compensation to an Iowa state senator in exchange for his endorsement and support in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, according to emails obtained by OpenSecrets.org.

The negotiations appear to have involved several top Ron Paul 2012 officials, including Jesse Benton, pictured with Ron Paul at right, who was the campaign’s political director. Benton is married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter and is currently managing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s 2014 campaign.

In an Oct. 29, 2011 email, a representative of Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, a Republican, asks the Paul campaign to provide Sorenson with $8,000 per month in salary for him, $5,000 per month in salary for a Sorenson ally, as well as $100,000 in contributions for a newly created PAC that Sorenson planned to use to support conservative candidates for Iowa state office.

In exchange, the email, which was allegedly written by Aaron Dorr, executive director of Iowa Gun Owners, says Sorenson would abandon his support for Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s campaign, endorse Paul, campaign for him and provide access to an email list of Iowans who support homeschooling.

Bachmann had narrowly defeated Paul to win the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011, an early measure of support in the state.

A top aide in the 2008 Ron Paul presidential bid, Dennis Fusaro, provided several emails to OpenSecrets.org. According to the address fields in the emails, Fusaro was copied on the messages, which all date from late 2011.

Five days before the caucus, in late 2011, Sorenson abruptly switched his support from Bachmann to Paul, and the Bachmann campaign at the time charged that he had done so for money.

Sorenson is currently under investigation by the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee after a former Bachmann campaign staffer filed a complaint against him alleging he was paid by that campaign as well. Similar complaints have been filed with the Federal Election Commission. He has denied any wrongdoing in that case. Sorenson and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment, but he told the Des Moines Register that Fusaro had fabricated the story and that he never authorized anyone to negotiate with the Paul campaign for financial support.

The lengthy memo sent on Oct. 29, 2011, was addressed to John Tate, who was then the Ron Paul 2012 campaign manager, Dorr not only lays out Sorenson’s alleged requests for money and what he will do in return, but says that because of a major Iowa Senate leadership meeting coming up on Nov. 10, Sorenson couldn’t quit the Bachmann campaign until Nov. 11. In a second email chain Fusaro provided, Benton emails Dorr on Nov. 14, writing that, “with those meetings in the rear-view mirror, I though(sic) now might be a good time to revisit Kent and your brother joining our team.”

On Nov. 21, Dorr replied to Benton and Tate that he was going to step out of the negotiations because Dimitri Kesari, a Ron Paul staffer, had gone to Sorenson’s house for dinner.

“As I’m no longer needed to facilitate a conversation at this point, I’ll bow out and let you, John, Dimitri and Kent work this out,” Dorr wrote.

Kasari, Tate, Dorr and Benton did not return calls and emails for comment. Today, The Iowa Republican, a conservative blog in Iowa, published an audio recording of what is alleged to be a conversation between Fusaro and Sorenson in which the senator tells Fusaro that Kasari gave his wife a $30,000 check from an account belonging to a jewelery store Kasari’s wife owns. In the recording Sorenson said he did not cash the check.

Fusaro, who worked on the Ron Paul 2008 campaign as national field director and was paid roughly $9,000 by the 2012 campaign for email lists, says the emails are authentic. He was not sure, he said, whether the deal had ever been carried out. According to a review of Iowa campaign finance records, the Iowa Conservatives Fund PAC, for which Dorr allegedly wanted $100,000, received no contributions from the Paul campaign or anyone affiliated with it. In fact, it has raised no funds at all and other than a $506 debt for bank account charges from Dec. 2011, appears to be dormant.

Fusaro said he thinks the emails speak for themselves.

“I sadly but firmly stand by the evidence that I have and I’ll let people draw their own conclusions,” Fusaro told OpenSecrets.org. “But I believe the conclusions about Sorenson are largely right.”

The Jan. 3, 2012 caucuses were the closest in Iowa history. While it initially appeared that Mitt Romney, the eventual Republican nominee, had won, voting irregularities were alleged, and when the officially certified results were released on Jan. 19, they showed Santorum edging out Romney by the thinnest of marginas. Paul came in third, while Bachmann only managed sixth place and subsequently pulled out of the presidential race.

Russ joined the Center in March 2012 as the money-in-politics reporter. His duties include reporting for OpenSecrets Blog and assisting with press inquiries. Russ has a background in investigative journalism, having worked as a reporter for the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, and he spent five years as a newspaper reporter in New Hampshire. He has a degree in political science from Muhlenberg College and a M.A. in journalism and public affairs from American University.

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